Schools, agencies discuss crisis plan

Eudora High Principal Marty Kobza said he was happy with the communication between EHS and local law enforcement, but after last Friday, he said, the ties are even stronger.

Representatives from school, health, community, law enforcement and emergency organizations met at city hall to discuss crisis management in Eudora's schools. The organizations met with Richard Veech, an area administrator for the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, which includes Columbine High.

Establishing a command team to take charge should an incident occur was a strong point of the meeting, Kobza said. He also was thankful to open up more lines of communication with local and area organizations.

"I've been very pleased with the relationship we've had previously with the police and the fire department and all the agencies involved," Kobza said. "I think this helped us all to have common terminology and the tools to work together."

Eudora Superintendent Dave Winans agreed the meeting helped educate those on hand about how schools would interact with other agencies. Also, it helped them develop tools that would be needed to effectively handle a crisis situation. One such item is a "go box," which holds blueprints of a school facility and an accurate roster and photos of students and staff. Winans said the box would be implemented in Eudora's school facilities in the near future.

"Each building will have one of those and a designated person will have a specific responsibility to make sure the go box goes with him," he said.

During the Columbine tragedy on April 20, 1999, two students shot and killed 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives. One obstacle during the incident was a lack of knowledge of the school's structural layout.